The Vampaneze Lady
by SamDellaMente
Summary: Steve Leopard is destined to be the Vampaneze Lord, but he's not the only half-vampaneze in the clan. What will happen between him and the girl who is helping to mentor him with Murlough? No exact pairing yet.
1. Chapter 1

Hai! This is my first Darren Shan fanfic, but there will be more, I promise :3. This story is based on the movie, but has some parts from the books in it. Please review! Chapter 2 will be up soon :D

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own anything apart from my OC character, Elle (pronounced Ellie) Jones. Please do not use her in any of _your _stories.

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><p>Standing on the rooftop, the one (who I guessed was) known as Steve looked like he was ready to jump off the top of the building. I wouldn't blame him. If my best friend - an only friend - had died, I would be willing to take the step he was about to do. In my case, that was the other way around: I was the one who had 'died', but my best friend wasn't willing to kill herself, she was too weak. Now, however, I don't know if she is still weak, it's been twenty years since I 'died'. I only looked four years older (I now looked seventeen, I was thirteen when I was blooded).<p>

Somehow, the boy was totally oblivious to Mr Tiny and me on the rooftop with him. Mr Tiny's full name is Desmond Tiny and if you shortened down his first name, you got Des Tiny - _Destiny. _He thought everyone had a destiny. He was a small and quite plump man, and no-one dared get on his bad side; I didn't want to know what happened to the people who did. Before the boy could step off, Mr Tiny spoke, which made the boy jump a little, but not off the building.

"Careful," he said, "the first step is always the worst. Oh I know, you miss the one known as Darren," I sat patiently, listening to Mr Tiny, watching Steve's reaction. He didn't seem so shocked that Mr Tiny knew these things about him and instead he was listening carefully, in deep thought_. _His eyes flickered over to me several times as mine never left him. He finally focused on me, but still listening to Mr Tiny. I looked away from him, but something pulled my eyes back to him. We knew who he was going to be; he was going to be the Vampaneze Lord. After Mr Tiny had finished talking to Steve, he turned to me.

"Elle, would you escort Steve to Murlough?" I didn't want to say _no _to Mr Tiny, so I stood up and walked over to Steve, bending down slightly.

"Hop on, we're going to flit," I said as he climbed onto my back, "hold on tight," I added before walking to the side of the building and climbing off of it. When we reached the bottom, I told him to hold his breath and I started off in a sprint and then flitted in the direction of headquarters. It didn't take us long to reach headquarters and when I stopped running I let Steve slide off my back. He kneeled over, gasping for breath which showed me that he hadn't held his breath. I shook my head at him and offered a hand to help him up. He took my hand and stood upright, letting his hand linger in mine for a while. I pulled my hand away, laughing nervously.

"Come on, it's a bit of a walk from here to the main part," I said softly then began walking through headquarters slowly. I was surprised Steve hadn't questioned me yet, but he must have been able to read my thoughts.

"Where are we going? How can you flit? Are you a vampire?" he asked quickly while looking around the corridors of the headquarters.

"We're going to see Murlough," I answered, putting my hands into the pockets of my red hoodie, "And no, I'm not a vampire...I'm a half-vampaneze."

"Who's Murlough? Why are we going to see him?" he asked, looking at me.

"You'll find out when we get there..."

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><p>Yeah, I know it's not long, but here it is! Please review :3 Next chapter up soon!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again! It didn't take as long to write this chapter as it did with the other, but I worked really hard to get this done. I hope you like it and please review :3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Saga of Darren Shan or any of the characters within it, but I do own my OC character, Elle (pronounced Ellie) Jones. Please do not use her in anything of your own.

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><p>Steve was quite a flirtatious boy. For most of the walk to the main part of headquarters he complimented me on my looks, the way I walked, the way I spoke and the fact I was a vampaneze. Mr Tiny had explained to him what a vampaneze was - vampaneze killed their prey every time they fed whereas a vampire didn't - so Steve was up to date with that. He told me liked, and I quote, "badass girls". I couldn't help but laugh loudly when he said that and he blushed lightly. After that he remained silent, as did I.<p>

When we arrived there, we found a very impatient Murlough waiting for us.

"Finally! Elle, what took you so long?" he hurried over to us and began examining Steve.

"Sorry, Murlough, Mr Tiny kept on talking," I paused, "Murlough, may I speak to you please? Alone."

The two of us walked to the centre of the room and kept our voices low so that Steve couldn't hear. I didn't like the idea of blooding someone so young, even though I was blooded at the age of thirteen…against my own will. And I made sure I told Murlough this. Some part of me still hated the vampaneze for blooding me into a half-vampaneze, but most of my anger had faded away through the years. Even though he was going to be our Lord, I couldn't let them blood someone into a full vampaneze so young. I had no power in this, but I was able to hand in my opinions.

"Wouldn't it be best just to blood him as half? That way it would be easier for him to go around as though he's still human - if he wears contacts - if he bumps into any vampires."

Murlough opened his mouth to protest, but then realised that I was right.

"Fine…fine."

I took a seat at the back of the room and waited for Murlough to blood Steve into a half-vampaneze. As Steve raised his hands, Murlough made a small incision on each of his fingertips with his nails, and then done the same to himself. Steve winced slightly from the sharp pain, but he tried to hide it. The dark haired vampaneze placed his fingertips against the human's and the blooding had begun. They both closed their eyes, Steve going through the most pain; he tried to hide it, but I could see it. A minute later, Steve collapsed on the floor and I knew that was when the vampaneze blood had reached his heart and the transformation was complete. He didn't look much different - for now - but when he stood back up, he smirked. Murlough took his hands, raised them to his lips and ran his tongue along Steve's fingertips, then to his own, healing the cuts. They remained close together, in deep conversation, but I could hear Murlough explaining to Steve that he was to be the Vampaneze Lord, which brought a grin to the boy's face.

Murlough turned to face me and motioned me to join the two of them, so I stood up and walked over to the boys.

"Elle, you will help teach Steve our ways and train him through the day, while we full vampaneze rest." Nodding, I ran my hand through my long, black hair, thinking up a plan of how and what to teach the newly blooded half-vampaneze. "You will start now, Gannen's orders." he added. Gannen Harst is my mentor - I am his assistant, whatever he tells me to do, I have to do it. Gannen was the one who blooded me twenty years back.

"Okay," I said softly and turned to Steve, "Come on then, there's a yard out back, we can start there." Once I had spoken, I turned to the back of the room and headed for the door which lead to the back yard. I turned my head to make sure Steve was following - he was. I lead him out to the yard, where I took a seat on one of the benches. He was pumped and ready to start training, but it was too early for him to start, he had only just been blooded. However, I could still teach him our ways.

"Are we going to get fighting or what?" he asked impatiently. I laughed at his enthusiasm to start training, but I shook my head.

"Not yet, you've only just been recently blooded, it'll take a while before everything kicks in."

At that, he stomped on the ground and stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at me frowning. He asked me what we were going to do instead, so I stood up, walked over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. He had obviously gotten the wrong idea because he smirked and leaned in close to me. Laughing to myself, I dragged him over to the bench and sat him down, and I could sense he was a little disappointed at my actions. I kept my hands firmly on his shoulders for a moment and said, "Stay," as I knew he would stand up again if I didn't. Thankfully, he remained seated, so I let my arms fall down by my side, then I took a couple steps away from him.

"I'm going to teach you our _ways _today. Tomorrow, we may be able to start a bit of training." When I mentioned training, his face lit up so I knew the was the type who enjoyed fight. As I rambled on about the vampaneze ways - how we drain our victim of their blood when we feed and that you absorb that person's spirit and we're able to see into their memories, how eventually we achive purple skin and red eyes - he licked his lips, which made me wonder if he was really listening.

"Leonard!" I clicked my fingers in his face, "Are you listening?" It was important he knew these things if he was to become the Vampaneze Lord.

"Yes, I'm listening!" he snapped, standing up, "I just...I'm thirsty...I want blood, just to try it..." he sighed. Damn, he was going to be a bloodthirsty boy and I didn't necassarily want to help mentor him with Murlough if he were to be like that. I may have been vampaneze, but I wasn't exactly bloodthirsty. I enjoyed watching people bleed to death, rather than drinking their blood (I'm quite sadistic) - I only feed when I need to. I ran my hand through my wavy hair - which I normally kept down, unless a fight came, then I tied it back - and sighed heavily. In fact, taking him out to try blood didn't seem like a bad idea as I hadn't had any blood in while and I was hungry. It would be best to take Murlough with us, but he would be asleep, so we'd have to wait until he awoke, which would be night. It also made more sense to attack in the night, not during the day.

"Later, it's pointless attacking in the day unless you absolutley need to," I explained to him, "We'll wait until nightfall, and take Murlough with us."

"Is Murlough your mentor too?" Murlough was going to be Steve's mentor, along with the help of me, until he knew exactly how the vampaneze lived.

"No." I answered quickly.

"Then who is?"

"Gannen Harst is my mentor. He blooded me into a half-vampaneze twenty years back..." I trailed off, thinking of the past.

"Why were you blooded?" he asked curiously. I bit my lip, not wanting to answer the question, but it had always felt better to tell my stories. I took a deep breath in, ready to explain why I was blooded into a half-vampaneze...

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><p>Yeah, so I've decided to confuse this story even more by bringing Gannen into it whereas he's from the books. But I did say I would do some things from the books! So, yeah, Murlough is Steve's mentor, Gannen is Elle's. In the next chapter, you learn more about my character, which will be up soon :D Please review and let me know how I'm doing.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. I had started CampNaNoWriMo and was distracted by that. Then I quit that and decided to do it next month, but I went to London for the weekend. But hey, at least it's posted! Enjoy.

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><p>I took in a deep breath and opened my mouth to speak, but then I closed it again. I had only known Steve for less than an hour, and I wasn't ready to share my story yet. He looked at me, waiting for an answer, so I just shook my head and sat down.<p>

_When I was thirteen, I had a run-in with a group of vampaneze. They were planning to drink my blood until they remembered something Mr Tiny had told them. There was another prophecy, beside the one about the Vampaneze Lord, that the Lord would need a Lady to help him through the war. That was then they had thought about it and kidnapped me. They took me, locked me in a dark room filled with chains and a few old corpses - a dungeon! I cried the whole night, curled up in the corner. There were no ways out of the room as there were no windows or secret passageways. The walls had cracks in them, but there was no way to escape through them. Mould was growing on the walls and a foul foul stench filled the air, from the smell of the corpses. I had eventually fallen asleep, but I was soon awoken by one of the vampaneze who kidnapped me - Gannen Harst, my mentor. He was accompanied by another group of vampaneze who were quick to weaken me by beating me until I could not move anymore. Most feeling had gone from my body; I felt dead, but I knew I wasn't. When I was too weak to even care about what was going on, Gannen pricked each of my fingertips with his nails and blood began to trickle out. It only felt like a tickle, but it probably would have hurt more if I could feel. He then placed his fingers against mine after pricking his own fingertips. I may not have been able to feel what was happening to the outside of my body, but inside was torture. Vampaneze blood mixed with human blood in my veins, which hurt, but then the pain worsened when the blood hit my heart. I closed my eyes tightly and clenched my teeth, and the pain soon faded away._

My face must have went blank when I looked into the past because Steve waved his hand in front of my face, clicking his fingers.

"Hello? Earth to Elle," he said rather loudly to grab my attention. Blinking at him, I pushed his hand away and cleared my throat.

"Sorry," I said quickly, "I was just...thinking."

He nooded once and took my hand in his.

"I know we haven't known each other for long, but you can tell me if something is wrong."

I looked at him, my eyes meeting his and for a moment I thought I felt a spark, but I tore my eyes and hand away from him before I could let emotions get in the way. He sighed and stood up and bagan pacing side to side, in front of me.

"Girls, Leonard, forget about them." I heard him mumble to himself. I watched him pace back and forth, studying his expression. Something about him pulled me towards him, and I wanted to get closer to him. But I knew I shouldn't, as he was to be the Vampaneze Lord, I didn't want to complicate things.

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><p>A few days has passed since Steve was blooded. Gannen, Murlough, Steve and I had fed the night before; when we returned, Gannen and Murlough had gone to their coffins as dawn was approaching. But Steve and I remained awake so I could begin training him. He was eager to start training so I led him straight out into the back yard. I stood in the centre of the yard, away from any obstacles.<p>

"Stand roughly ten metres away from me," I directed Steve and waited for him to take position. When he took his position, I gave him the next instruction. "Now, I want you to run at me and try to tackle me to the floor." Steve tilted his head at me and raised a brow. "Just do it!" I hurried him on. I stood still as he prepared to run at me. He broke off into a sprint, but I was too fast for him. As he reached out his arms to grab me around the waist, I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down onto the floor, placing my foot on his chest. He looked at me in confusion and then realised what I had done - shown him how to defend himself. Lifting my foot from his chest, he quickly jumped up and brushed himself down, straightening his jacket. I smirked as I looked down to his pants, wanting to fool him.

"Your fly is down," I said, looking from his trousers. He frowned then turned around to zip it up then I ran at him. When he realised that I was lying, he turned back around, his eyes widening when he saw me jump on him. I tackled him to the floor, pinning him to the ground. I had straddled him in order to keep him down, but I had left his arms free (on purpose) to see how he would fight back. Taking the opportunity, he grabbed me by my shoulders and flipped us around so he was straddling me. He pressed my arms to the ground so I couldn't escape. Steve obviously had some other idea in his mind while in the position. He leant forward so his face was inches from mine. I couldn't move, so I just remained still, looking Steve in the eye. He brushed his lips against mine for a while before pressing his lips against mine, kissing me. His lips were soft, and I wanted to kiss him back, but I knew I couldn't. Instead of kissing him back, I lifted my head from the ground slightly, pulled away from him and head-butted him.

He rolled off me in surprise and I jumped up from the ground. I ran my hands through my curly hair and paced back and forth across the yard. He scowled and kicked the object most near to him - a garden gnome. Luckily for him, the gnome didn't belong to anyone, because he broke it. I had the feeling to tell him that training was over for the day and that he should return to his room, but then I remembered something important...The Vampaneze Lady prophecy! I turned to face him, my eyebrow raised. I knew I probably shouldn't mess with him _this _early into his role as the Lord, but the prophecy had been told.

After making a quick decision, I flitted over to him. He didn't realise I was there - too busy trapped in his own thoughts, I presumed - until I placed both of my hands on his cheeks and pressed my lips against his gently. This really wasn't benifiting me, but I must admit, he was a pretty good kisser. Snapping out of his thoughts, he kissed me back softly, then pulled away and smirked. I didn't fancy him, but I had to make some move on the prophecy of the Vampaneze Lady, and I wasn't very pleased about it. _He, _on the other hand, was overjoyed!

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><p>No cliff-hanger this time, sorry! But please <em>do <em>review and let me know if you want more!


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, so I posted chapter four quite soon because I had planned this one out thoroughly and I felt like I owed you for taking a long time to post chapter three. I'm actually quite proud of this chapter...it's the longest one so far. Enjoy!

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><p>"What was that for? I thought you weren't interested," he asked with a slight smirk as I stepped back, sliding my hands into the pockets of my red hooded jumper. I took a while to reply, wondering if I should tell him about the prophecy or just lie and tell him that I liked him - which I didn't. I just shook my head and laughed a little.<p>

"Were you not told? About the prophecy?" I looked up at him, my eyes meeting his purple ones.

"You mean the one about the vampires and vampaneze going into war?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowin into a frown. I shook my head and leant against the nearest wall.

"No, the prophecy about the Vampaneze Lady..." I trailed off, feeling slightly embarrassed about telling him that we would _have _to be a couple, whether we likes it for not. _I _didn't like the idea at _all. _I didn't want to be in a relationship with someone I didn't love - I wanted to find the right person. That was probably a hard thing to do considering I was a vampaneze and every other vampaneze (apart from Steve) were many years older than me. I'm sure it didn't really matter, considering full vampires aged at one tenth the rate of a normal human, and half-vampaneze at one fifth of the rate.

"The Vampaneze Lady? What's that about?" he chuckled and shook his head, leaning against the wall also, "Who's that meant to be? And I'm assuming they're supposed to date the Lord?" he folded his arms and continued laughing under his breath.

"W-well...we don't know for sure, but...who's the only girl vampaneze?" I sighed, unable to look at him, my face turning a light shade of red. I had never been so nervous in my life.

"You are." he said, his voice barely a whisper when he realised who the Vampaneze Lady was. I nodded my head slowly, keeping my eyes focused on the ground, unable to face him. Even though I kept focus on the ground, he kept his gaze on me. I didn't enjoy being watched, but I wasn't surprised that he was looking at me. After all, I had just told him we were supposed to be a couple. "Elle, are you serious?" he finally asked after a long period of silence. I told him I was serious and that was the reason that I was blooded. He seemed slightly disgusted by that fact: the vampaneze had took my life away for the sake of their own. I had always thought I would be able to undo what was done and go back to being human, but how would I explain it to my family? Through my twenty years of being a half-vampaneze, I had finally came to terms that I couldn't go back to my human life, and I was to live the next few centuries as a blood drinker.

I jumped slightly at the sudden touch when he lifted up my chin, his eyes meeting mine. We shared a moment of looking into each other's purple eyes, never breaking the connection. The hand that was on my chin moved to my cheek and he gently caressed it. With his other hand, he brushed a strand of my dark hair from my face and leant in close, ghosting his lips over mine. Before I could kiss him back, we were interrupted by a low cough coming from behind us. I turned around swiftly, finding Murlough and Gannen standing at the door. Murlough was chuckling darkly, whereas Gannen was frowning, annoyed at our actions. I took a step forward so I wasn't so close to Steve.

"Sorry, Mr Harst...and Murlough."My mentor shook his head and motioned for Steve and I to go over to him. We did so and the two adults pushed us through the door. I wondered why they were awake during the day, especially when it was still light, but they didn't plan on going outside. When we were in the building, Murlough shut the door and locked it.

"There's a meeting with the rest of the vampaneze, they want to discuss Steve." Murlough said, guiding us through into the corridors which lead to the main hall. Steve looked at me before following, wondering if everything was alright. I nodded to him, letting him know that everything was going to be alright. The corridors were dark, but there were small candles on the walls to light it up slightly. The journey was silent and neither Steve or I dared speak.

When we reached the entrance to the main hall, Gannen - who was in the lead - stopped and turned to face the rest of us. "Elle and I will walk in first and take our seats at the table. Murlough, you walk in and introduce Steve as their Lord, then Steve will enter. Everyone understand?" We all nodded and prepared ourselves for walking in. I pulled of my red hooded jumper to make a more formal approach; underneath my jumper was a plain black t-shirt. From the pocket of my skinny jeans, I pulled out a hair bobble and tied my hair back into a high ponytail and left my fringe free. I nodded, letting Gannen know I was ready to go in, and we proceeded into the main hall. Gannen pushed open the door and led me over to the long, mahogany table that situated itself in the middle of the room. Several other vampaneze were sitting at the table waiting for us. There were four seats free: one for me, Gannen, Murlough and Steve. The seat that was saved for Steve was at the head of the table and was more comfortable than the others. My mentor and I sat down beside each other at the table. I had been instructed to sit at the seat nearest the head seat (probably because of the Vampaneze Lady prophecy).

Next, Murlough walked through and stood at the door. "Fellow vampaneze, let me present...the Vampaneze Lord!" Everyone turned their heads to the door as Steve walked through. He entered confidently and stood at the door for a few seconds before Murlough led him to his seat at the head of the table before sitting down at his own seat. Steve sat and smiled when he saw me sitting beside him and the meeting began...

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><p>We were the last to exit the main hall after the meeting, but we didn't leave the same way as everyone else. Gannen and Murlough had planned to take us out at night into the forest nearby to train; they wanted to see how Steve's skills were coming along. There was a large door at the back of the hall, which lead out into the open. We all walked through quickly, excited to train. When we reached outside, Gannen and Murlough broke off into a flit then so did Steve and I, following the two older vampaneze. We all came to a sudden halt when we reached the forest, but it wasn't the sight of the forest that caused us to stop. It was the Cirque Du Freak's lights.<p>

Steve growled when he saw the Cirque and the rest of turned to face him, slight confusion on our faces. Yes, there was a vampire in the Cirque, but why would that bother him? Gannen placed his hand on my shoulder. "Stay here, Elle. You too Steve. Murlough and I will go check that no-one is going to bother us." And with that, the two of them disappeared into the darkness, leaving Steve and I alone.

"What's wrong?" I asked Steve curiously. He turned to me, frowning.

"That's the Cirque Du Freak...there's a vampire in there."

"I know, but if he doesn't bother us, we'll be fine." I reassured him, placing my hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off and turned back to look at the Cirque.

"He's not just any vampire, he's Vor Horsten, or more commonly known as Larten Crepsley. I asked him to blood me into a vampire, but apparently I have bad blood, so he refused. I promised one day I would hunt him down and kill him," he said rather angrily "I wanted to become a vampire because I absolutely hated my life, the only good thing in it was Darren, and then he died." he looked down once he had finished his story and I could understand why he was angry.

There was a moment of silence as we both looked down, but then our heads snapped up at the sound of rustling bushes. Both Steve and I kept our eyes focused on the bushes ahead of us (which was where the sound came from) and when nothing emerged, we turned to each other. I placed my finger to my lips, telling Steve to remain quiet. "Stay here." I whispered and then walked closely towards the bushes. There was someone hiding in them - from what I could see - but their red jacket gave them away. I stopped when I was an inch away from the bush and pushed some of the branches aside. Then whoever was trying to hide in the plant, jumped out at me.

They tackled me to the ground, but I rolled us over so I could have the advantage. What I didn't expect was for the person to be a teenage vampire! I knew what he was from the moment he jumped out at me because I caught the sight of his fingertips - the scars that were left after someone was blooded into a vampire or vampaneze - and their scent. He pulled out a knife from his jacket and stabbed me in the leg with it. When I let out a loud cry of pain, he pushed me off him and pinned me down with one of his arms, the other held up above my chest, the knife pointing down to my heart...

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><p>Ooh! Cliffhanger. XD I didn't have one in the last chapter, so I put one in this one. Review and tell me what you think will happen!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **A few things I would like to say before I start this chapter.  
>1) I CHANGED MY USERNAME. I used to be <strong>saveitforsam<strong>, but now I'm **HeckYeahJosh**.  
>2) Sorry for not updating in while! I had another go at Camp NaNoWriMo and failed miserably (again), but books took over. I've been non-stop reading!<br>3) Sorry for any spelling mistakes in the last four chapters D:  
>4) I realised I made a word up in the previous chapter - situated. After posting it, did I realise that it isn't a word. I thought it meant "where something was placed", but apparently it isn't even a word!<br>5) I bumped the rating up to M for language and violence.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, apart from the plot and Elle.

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><p><em>My eyes snap shut. My heartbeat rises. I can feel it. The tip touches my chest. It pulls away. I'm a goner for sure. The cold blade sends shivers through my body. It touches my chest again. It rips away part of my shirt. I hold my breath. It's my last, I know it is. The blade is removed again. I'm unable to move. My heart pounds…<em>

Nothing happens.

I opened my right eye to see what the hold up was, but the vampire was no longer on me. Propping myself up on my elbows, I opened my other eye and looked around. Three metres ahead of me, Steve had tackled the vampire to the ground, threatening to kill him. He had taken the knife and he held it in his hand with a tight grip. I had to stop him, but I couldn't. The wound in my leg was too deep to support me and blood oozed out of it. The two boys argued as Steve had the vampire pinned on the ground. I couldn't hear everything they were saying - I couldn't concentrate well with the pain in my leg - but I managed to catch a few words: "I hate you, Steve." "I hate you, Darren." So the vampire's name was Darren.

I turned my focus away from the boys and lifted up the leg of my jeans, revealing the wound. The cut wasn't too big, but it was very deep. The flesh was showing and blood was running from the veins fast. I hadn't taken first aid classes when I was human, but I knew to use a tourniquet. All I had to use was the material on my clothes. I lifted part of my shirt and poked a hole through with my finger nail. I stretched the hole and pulled off a strip of the fabric. I wrapped it around the area on my leg where the wound was and tied it tightly. I winced slightly as I got used to the tight material. From where my shirt was torn away over my chest, you could see part of my bra and you could see my tummy from where I ripped it to use as a tourniquet. I didn't enjoy my body showing, but I could do nothing about it.

Steve and Darren were still arguing when I had finished sorting out my leg. I rolled my eyes at them and pushed myself up off the ground. I couldn't lean on my wounded leg, so I put all of my weight into my other. Eventually, Gannen and Murlough returned; they must have heard the boys arguing. Murlough rushed over to Steve and yanked him off of Darren and whispered something into his ear. Gannen walked calmly over to me and frowned when he saw the awkward position I was in and my torso barely covered.

"What happened?" he asked gruffly. I explained to him the events that had happened after he and Murlough disappeared into the darkness. He didn't reply to me, but all he done was nod. I let my gaze wander over to Steve. He was standing, in deep conversation with Murlough. Darren had disappeared, and I assumed he went back to the Cirque to inform his master of the vampaneze presence. We needed to leave. Gannen had also realised this and he yelled over at Murlough and Steve. "We need to leave, now." They looked over at us and nodded, before breaking into a flit. Before he had ran, Steve had locked his eyes with mine, and a small smile had broken to his face. I smiled back at him, but he had left before he could see it. Before I could bring up the fact that I wouldn't be able to run, Gannen picked me up and placed me on his back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on tightly, taking a deep breath and holding it. He broke into a sprint, then into a flit, taking us both back to headquarters.

When we reached headquarters, Steve and Murlough were waiting for us. Steve had calmed down since the incident with Darren, but he still seemed as if anything could set him off again. I had never seen such anger in a boy until the attack; I definitely assumed that he was going to kill the vampire. Gannen didn't put me back on the ground, as he knew I wouldn't be able to walk into the building and to my room. All I wanted to do was to lie down and rest for two days, to let my leg heal. It wouldn't heal fully in two days, but because I'm half-vampaneze, it would heal faster than any human's wound. Steve approached Gannen and I, his arms outstretched.

"I'll take her," he said, looking between my mentor and I. Gannen nodded and Steve stood behind him, his arms open for me to drop into them. I wasn't too certain about dropping into someone's arms, but I could trust Steve. After hesitating, I unwrapped my arms from Gannen's neck and pushed myself from him. Thankfully, I landed safely in Steve's arms, but the pain in my leg returned at the jolt. I gritted my teeth and wrapped my arms around Steve's neck. He only gave me a small smile before walking away from Gannen and Murlough.

At the entrance of headquarters, there was a small passageway that lead through to the bedrooms. Steve turned and began walking down. It was a long and dark tunnel, that was only lit by a minimum amount of candles on the walls. In fact, the whole of the building was dark like this, only candles giving off a small amount of light. I rested my head on his chest and inhaled deeply. I caught his scent while I breathed in, and oh my, his essence! A smile drew to my face and I closed my eyes, resting in his arms. He chuckled and I opened one of my eyes. He was looking down at me, grinning.

"What are you grinning at, Leonard?" I laughed softly and unwrapped one of my arms from his neck. I poked his chest gently and then let my hand rest on his chest. I felt the tunnel start to go downhill as he continued to carry me towards my room. We weren't far off, my room was the first after the slope. He only shook his head at my question and we travelled the rest of the way in silence. I relaxed in his arms and snuggled into him. Fatigue was setting in - I had gone a few days without sleep.

When we reached my bedroom, he opened the door, walked through and layed my down on my bed. My eyes fluttered closed, but I forced them open again. Steve was examining me, frowning at my ripped shirt and my leg. He quickly sat down on the bed by my feet and began to untie the tourniquet.

"Hey, what are you -" I began to ask, but he interrupted me.

"If I don't take this off, no blood will get to the rest of your leg. You may lose it," he said seriously. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, so I let him get on with what he was doing. The fabric he pulled away from my leg was covered in blood. He pulled a face at the wound and looked up at me. "Do you have any cloth, bandages maybe?" he stood up and began looking in the drawers that held my clothes. I began to protest against him searching through my property, but I stopped when he pulled out some spare cloth. I frowned at it for a moment, wondering where it came from, then I remembered. I had ripped the sleeves off some of my jumpers so they would be shorter. He brought out two of the sleeves and sat back down. After dabbing away the lingering blood, he gently wrapped the clean sleeve around the area on my leg were the wound was.

"Hair grip?" he asked while keeping the fabric wrapped around my leg with one of his hands. I nodded and reached over for my bedside table, grabbing one of the loose hair grips I always leave lying around. I handed it to him and he locked the sleeve together with it. Once he had finished with my leg, he looked up at me and smiled softly. He told me to move along on the bed, so I did and made room for him to be able to lie down beside me. And he did so. He slid his arm around my shoulders and I cuddled into him, yet again relaxing in his arms. He caressed my cheek with the palm on his hand, keeping his touch gentle. I smiled up at him sweetly and wrapped my arm around him. Our eyes locked together and we held it for a minute, until reality hit me. I shook my head and pulled away from him, frowning at our actions.

"We should not be doing this," I said seriously, sitting up and folding my arms. Steve rolled his eyes and sat up as well, his eyebrows furrowing.

"You're the one who told me about the Vampaneze Lady prophecy, right? So why are you stopping that from happening?" he snapped, shooting a glare at me. I hate to admit it, but he had a point. I remained silent for a while, trying to think of an answer. However, nothing came to me. I shrugged and lay back down, turning onto my side. The pain in my leg was beginning to numb, but if I moved, the sharp pain came back. I clenched my teeth as to help ease the pain, and when I settled back down, it slowly faded.

"Is it too fast for you?" he asked in a softer tone. I didn't say anything, but I nodded. He lay down beside me and sighed. I closed my eyes, wanting to fall asleep as soon as possible. Some part of me wanted him to stay with me through the night, and hold me, but another part told me that he should leave, and work at one prophecy at a time. In the end, I decided to let him stay with me - he didn't seem like he was going to leave anyway.

A week later, my leg had healed and I was able to walk around freely without a bandage or anyone helping me. It was night and every vampaneze was awake. Murlough wanted to spend some time with Steve to see how he was getting on with training, so I sat on a bench in the main hall, waiting for Gannen. He emerged from the tunnel which lead to the showers, knives placed in his belt. I stood up when he walked over to me, and frowned.

"What are the weapons for?" I asked, my arms folded. He usually carried a knife around, but that was only a pocket knife; Now he had around four machetes. He pulled out two of the weapons from his pocket and handed them to me. I raised a brow and took the two knives, keeping them in my hand. "What are these for?"

"We're going back to the Cirque tonight, just to keep watch and make sure the vampires aren't planning anything against us." he stated and pulled out something from his pocket - a knife-holding belt for me. I knew why we were doing this: if the vampires were planning to kill us, it would mean war. I wrapped the belt through my jeans and fastened the buckle. I then placed the two knives into the slots where they belong. Pulling out a hair bobble from my pocket, I tied my hair up into a high pony tail. I was wearing my usual outfit - black skinny jeans, plain black t-shirt, a red hooded jumper and converse trainers. Nodding once, Gannen started to make his way out of the main hall, followed by me.

I hadn't seen Steve through the day, and for some reason, I was slightly worried. I don't know why, I knew he would be perfectly safe, but I couldn't help but worry. Why was I worrying? Oh yes, because he's the Vampaneze Lord. Yes, that was the reason. Nothing else. I rolled my eyes at myself; I was starting to have feelings for the boy. Though, for now, I shrugged it off, I had other business to attend to - vampires.

When we stepped out of headquarters, Gannen nodded, giving the signal for flitting. We both broke into a sprint, then into a flit, zooming towards the Cirque Du Freak. It didn't take us long to arrive and when we did, we found two large trees close to each other and by the camp to hide behind. I hid behind one while Gannen hid behind the other. Taking occasional peeks from behind the tree, I could see a group of freaks in a circle by a fire. They were sharing stories and showing off their freakish skills.

One of the women lifted up her hand for everyone to see and wrapped her hand around her index finger on the other hand. Without wincing, she snapped of her finger! My eyes widened at the sight and a small smile drew across my face at what I saw - her finger grew back! After staring at the woman for a while, I moved my gaze somewhere else. I looked around the grounds of the camp, until my eyes locked on someone familiar. I froze, completely still, unable to even blink. I saw him. He saw me. I had met the gaze of the vampire - Darren.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've had writers block. D: I'll try keep on top of my writing though!

**Disclaimer:**

**Elle:** HeckYeahJosh does not own The Saga of Darren Shan or the movie in any way, but she does own me.

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><p>Gannen had noticed I was staring at something and as soon as he followed my gaze, he knew who I was staring at. I guessed that he could smell the scent coming from the boy.<p>

"Elle!" he growled quietly to snap me out of my trance. I turned my head in his direction and quickly returned behind my tree. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, hoping that Darren would not have recognised who I was. I waited a few moments before I poked my head around the tree to see if he was still there. He was gone. I pulled myself back behind the tree fully and looked at Gannen.

"He's not there anymore," I whispered, but made my voice loud enough for Gannen to hear. He nodded once and suddenly disappeared from where he was standing. I blinked and found him standing directly in front of me.

"I'm going to go snoop around to see if there are anymore vampires there. Stay here, okay?" He spoke quietly, looking down at me. I nodded and he flitted away from sight. Running a hand through my hair, I sat down on the grass and leant against the tree. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, breathing in the smell of freshly cooked doughnuts. The corners of my lips curled into a small smile as I breathed in the scent. It had been a while since I had eaten a doughnut. A few years maybe?

I noticed the delicious smell float closer to me and my mouth began to water. It continued to come closer to me, as if somone were delivering some to me. I opened my eyes and I noticed a shadow moving towards where I was sat. I frowned as I tried to focus and see who it was. When I realised who it was, I quickly jumped up and pulled out a knife from my belt. It was Darren. When he saw the knife in my hand, he shook his head.

"I don't want to fight," he said calmly. In his hands were a plate of two doughnuts. Why did he bring them out here? I nodded once and placed my knife back into it's slot. When he thought it was safe, Darren walked over to me slowly, holding out the plate. "I thought you might like these."

I raised a brow, not taking the plate from him. "They're filled with poison, aren't they?" Shaking my head, I pushed the plate of doughnuts away from me. I kept my focus on him, making sure that he didn't surprise attack me again. Darren sighed and sat down against the tree.

"Fine, don't believe me then, but I know you want one," he smirked slightly and looked up at me, "If you don't trust me, I'll eat one and show you." He picked one up and opened his mouth to take a bite, when I stopped him.

"No, I'll choose which one. Because you easily could have left one clean and filled the other with poison." A small grin drew on my face as I kneeled down beside him and picked up the other doughnut. He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth and I held the warm doughnut an inch from his lips. He leaned forward slightly and took a bite.

Wait...had I just fed a vampire food? Well, at least I knew that both doughnuts were clean. I let him take the doughnut from my hand and I took the other one. I sat down on my bottom and placed my back against the tree. I took a bite out of the freshly cooked dough and a smile grew to my face - it was delicious! Darren grinned and looked at me.

"Enjoying that, eh?" he chuckled as he finished his off. I only nodded while I dug into the sweetness in my fingers. As I went to put the last bite into my mouth, I paused. Why was a _vampire _being kind to a _vampaneze_? I ate the last part of the doughnut, brushed the sugar off my hands and turned to look at Darren.

"Why are you being kind to me? We're supposed to be enemies, unless you haven't picked up on that yet?" I asked him. As I looked at him, I noticed him grow distant as he asked himself the same question. But he just shrugged and looked around, his eyes widening as he jumped up from the ground. Frowning, I stood up and followed his gaze. Gannen was returning. "Go..." I muttered, pushing him away from me gently. Darren nodded quickly and broke into a flit back into the camp grounds. I took a few steps forward as my mentor rushed forward.

"Why were you with that vampire?" Gannen asked me, shooting me a glare. Why was I was with Darren? I hadn't exactly thought about why and I didn't have a valid reason, so what could I say to my mentor? I couldn't say _I was just feeding him a doughnut _could I? No. I'd have to think of a valid excuse. I tried to _not _take my time with coming up with a lie. An idea hit me. It was risky, I'd need help, but it was _very _risky.

"I tried to befriend him, so I could find out if the vampires were planning any attacks on us. He didn't tell me anything tonight, but I'm sure if I keep up this act, I'll get some answers." I gave a small nod, sliding my hands into my pockets. I looked up Gannen to try and prove that I wasn't lying, and thankfully, he seemed to believe me. He ran a long finger down his face as he turned and started to walk away. I followed him, assuming that we were heading back to headquarters. "Are we flitting back?" I asked.

Gannen nodded, the pace of his walk quickening. "Of course." With his words, he broke into a flit, soon followed by me. It didn't take us long to arrive at headquarters and we were welcomed by Steve standing at the entrance. His arms were folded and his foot was tapping on the floor. "Elle? May I have a word?" he asked in a cold tone. I didn't ignore him, he seemed angry...

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><p><strong>AN: **I'm sorry it's only short, I had writers block! But I tried to get as much done as possible. I'll try get the next chapter up soon. Please don't hate me for this chapter, at all, but it is relevent.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **I added linked the character Darren to this story as he's going to be in more than I originally planned.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Darren Shan saga in any way whatsoever, but I do own my character Elle Jones.

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><p>Frowning, I followed Steve into headquarters. Gannen had decided to enter through a different way, to give us some privacy so that the Lord could speak to me. I kept my hands in my pocket as I followed him down the dark corridors silently. Not one of us said a word as he lead me down a more narrow path, which I had not yet experienced during the twenty years of being a vampaneze. When we entered the depths of the tunnel, he stopped suddenly, which caused me to accidentally walk into him. Turning around, he shot me a glare before pushing me against the wall, pinning me to it by lifting my arms above my head. I frowned and tried to break free from his gasp, but I gave up when I realised I was getting nowhere.<p>

"Steve, what are you -"

"Shut it!" He growled, pressing me harder to the wall. I tried fighting against him, but he was too strong for me. "Now, tell me, why where you with… with him?" his voice was dark as he spoke, a side I'd never seen of him before.

"Why was I with who?" I asked, trying to remain calm as if I didn't have a clue as to what he was one about, when really, I did. He knew I was with Darren. How he knew completely blew my mind.

"Darren! That's who!" Steve continued to glare at me while I was pinned helplessly against the cold wall. I didn't know how, but he knew. I assumed he must have spied on me while Gannen and I were out. What was I to tell him? The truth? No; I had already told a fake story to my mentor and one of them would know I was lying to them if they ever discussed the matter. Then it hit me. What I said didn't have to be a lie, did it? I could really use my lie against the vampires.

I didn't realise I was smiling until I felt the palm of Steve's hand collide with my cheeks. As one of my arms were realised, I couldn't control myself. Lifting my hand and clenching my fist, I threw it towards his face, sending a hard punch on his cheekbone. The hand that kept my other arm against the wall quickly pulled away and joined the other to cup his cheeks. I grabbed his shoulders and pressed him against the wall, glaring deep into his purple eyes.

"Listen, Steve, it's not what you may be thinking," I kept my voice firm to make sure he listened to me and understood, "I have a plan which we can use against the vampires." Then I began to explain to him my plan. Every now and again he nodded, to show he was listening and that he understood. Once I finished, a smirk grew on his face. I removed my hands from his shoulders and stood up straight.

"Oh, Elle," he said, his hands travelling to my sides to pull me closer to him, "You are absolutely amazing. Does Gannen know about this plan?" He asked, his lips brushing my ear. My breaths became short as I closed my eyes, his breath covering the side of my face. Our bodies were pressed against each others, and I didn't like it. At all. I placed my hands on his chest lightly as I tried to push myself back, but his hands snaked themselves around my waist so I couldn't move.

"Yes," I said, swallowing as I spoke, "He was the first person to know."

Steve chuckled quietly, running his fingers through my ponytail of hair. "Obviously," he muttered. After several times of trying to push myself away from him, I eventually managed to. As soon as I did, he frowned at me. "Something wrong, sweetheart?"

I nodded. "Yes. All this close contact… it's too much!" My voice had raised slightly as I spoke and it was obviously a bit too loud to be calm. Steve rolled his eyes and scowled loudly.

"It didn't seem too much last week when we were cuddled up in your bed," he smirked a little as he spoke, but soon returned to his annoyed expression, "Why are you complaining anyway? I thought you wanted to be with me, the way you allowed me to stay with you that night."

I didn't say anything. He was right. How could he not have gotten the wrong side of the stick? He thought I wanted to be with him. Maybe I did, deep down, and I just hadn't discovered that fact yet. Right now, I didn't. I didn't want to be involved romantically with anyone, I had other matters on my hand - surviving the oncoming war which was sure to start soon. The longer I put off answering his questions, the angrier he seemed to get.

"Were you playing with me?" he asked, his voice turning into a low growl.

No, I was not playing with him. I didn't mean for him to think of it that way, but was there any other way he could have taken it? I suppose not. I sighed and shook my head.

"I didn't mean for it seem that way. I guess I just…" I stopped speaking the moment I looked into his eyes once more. This time, I didn't see Steve, I saw an old friend…

_I sat, curled up in the corner of the dungeon. The only noise circulating the room was my breath and my heartbeat. Every time I exhaled, my breath would form into a sort of cloud as it was so cold. I was alone, for how long I couldn't tell, but it seemed like days. Finally, someone came in. At first, I thought they were going to hurt me some more, but no. They carried a dead body with them - a human body. As I looked down on the corpse, I saw scratches and bruises covering the flesh. I then turned my focus to the vampaneze in front of me. He sat down beside me and left the body in the middle of the floor. I didn't move, knowing I had nowhere to run to. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gently pulled me close. My muscles tensed at the contact, wanting to pull away. He spoke to me, trying to calm me as he felt how I tense I was sitting. Eventually, I relaxed and listened to the story he began to tell me. His family were murdered when he was sixteen and he wanted nothing more than to avenge them. While on his hunt for the killer, he came across the vampaneze. He learned their ways and understood them easily. He wanted to become one. So he was blooded. After being blooded, his family's murderer was his first kill. He told me his name was Trevor. That night, he stayed with me, making sure I slept well and that I remained relaxed. For the following weeks, he stayed with me every night until I settled into the clan. He joined Gannen and I on our hunts and helped me in my training. That was when everything went wrong. He took me out that night, treated me like a Princess, but then he told me that he loved me. He asked me to date him, which I had to say no to. I didn't love him that way, only as a friend. He didn't speak to me for a while after that, then a fortnight later, he was found dead. No-one knew how he died._

I've always had a problem with love. Not that I couldn't get someone to love _me, _it was I never could love someone. That is why I have a problem with the Vampaneze Lady prophecy. No matter how much I try, I would never be able to force myself to love Steve. It isn't his fault, it's mine.

Sighing, I took a few steps away from him and placed my back against the opposite wall. Steve looked over at me and scowled.

"Meet me in the morning for work on that plan of yours." After his words, he stormed out of the tunnel, leaving me alone in the darkness.

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><p><strong>AN: **Please review and tell me what you would like to see :D


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **I am so sorry for not updating in like...forever. I haven't been able to write much recently, but thankfully, I wrote a warm-up story and got back to writing this. I wrote most of this tonight actually xD

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I put quite some thought into this chapter. Review? It really helps me out.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything apart from Elle.

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><p>I didn't sleep through most of the day. In fact, I spent half of the time wandering the forests in the daylight, taking in the sun. I missed that. Walking in the sun with not a care in the world. It felt almost…human. But of course, I wasn't human. I had to return back to headquarters before sunset so I could grab a few hours of sleep before Steve and I (probably with Gannen and Murlough too) worked on my plan. I woke up the next morning rather tired and irritable. Whenever someone tried to speak to me, I just groaned and walked away from them. I didn't receive pleasant looks from anyone, as they could see in my expression that it wasn't worth trying to talk to me. I had dressed myself in a pair of jeans, a dark blue t-shirt and a pair of trainers, not wearing my usual outfit. Steve was waiting for me in the main tunnel when I arrived, his arms folded across his chest. He looked over at me as I walked over to him and pulled a face. I scowled at him and hit his arm when I reached him.<p>

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" he asked me jokingly, which I wasn't in the mood for. Shaking my head, I began to make my way to the garden out the back, expecting him to follow me. He asked me where I was going, so I turned around and sighed.

"We're going to work on the plan, right? It will be better if we can work on it in peace." Without letting him reply, I continued out of the building and into the back yard. The bright moonlight shone directly down into the centre of the yard, brightening up that patch while the rest of the area was dark. I walked over to the bench and sat down on it, bringing my legs up onto it too and folding them. Steve followed behind me, sitting down beside me when he reached the bench.

"So, I was thinking something along the lines of -" I began to explain my plan in deeper detail than I had the previous day, but I was cut of by Steve.

"Why do you have to be so bipolar?" His tone was dark when he spoke, but deep also.

I frowned at his question, slightly taken back by it. What did he mean? Was I being bipolar?

"You act as if you want me by cuddling up to me and kissing me one moment, but then wanting rid of me the next." He stated. He was trying to keep his voice calm, but I heard a slight growl come from the back of his throat. I didn't know how to answer him, so I sat there like a lemon, staring at him. The longer I remained silent, the angrier he became. I would have said something to stop him from becoming ultimately angry, but I had nothing to say. He scowled and stood up from the bench, his hand curling into a fist. I could see that he was going to do something stupid and dangerous. Sighing, I stood up and placed a hand on his arm to keep him still.

"Steve, calm down," my words poured out of my mouth; I had no control of what I was saying, "I'm sorry, okay? I don't mean to act so bipolar and confusing. I don't know how I feel about you. I know we're supposed to fall in love and with me by your side, we'll defeat the vampire clan, but at the moment I don't feel anything in that way. Maybe in time, but for now…" I shook my head, sighing. Steve licked his lips and looked around, then turned his focus back on me.

"You should have said something earlier then," he said in a dark tone, placing his hand on his shoulder and pushing me down onto the bench. I frowned and a growl came from my throat as I stood up and shoved him back.

"Don't push me!" I yelled at him, sending a glare in his direction. He stumbled back slightly, but he caught his balance before he fell backwards. He clenched his fists then relaxed them, but ran straight at me!

I wasn't able to avoid his attack in time and when the palm of his hand collided with my chest, I tumbled over the bench, landing backwards on the hard concrete. I let out a groan as I picked myself up from the ground, rubbing my head after it had hit the floor. My vision was quite blurred and I could just make out Steve's figure, breathing deeply. I placed one hand onto the bench to keep myself steady as my vision returned to normal and the dizziness went away. Once I was able to focus on everything around me, I scowled and walked towards the door quickly. Steve yelled after me, but I ignored him and opened the door, stormed in and slammed it shut behind me.

Ignoring the questioning looks of the vampaneze in the main hall, I made my way through, my hand going back to my head as it began to hurt. When I reached the narrow corridors that lead to the exit, I picked up my pace and broke into a run towards the exit of the tunnels. I didn't know where I wanted to run to, I just wanted to escape. No one would appreciate me running away while planning something that could save our lives, but I needed to get away. The Vampaneze Lady was proving too much for me to take and I began to wonder if that destiny is really mine. Was it meant for me or was I just mistaken for the special woman? I didn't have the physical maturity of a woman yet and I was still expected to be the Vampaneze Lady. I was only thirteen when I was blooded; how could they expect a thirteen year old to work up to _that _prophecy?

The moment I left the building, I made my way straight to the forest where I was the previous day with Gannen. I didn't know why I wanted to go there, but it was a quiet place which would probably relax me. I broke into a flit once I left headquarter grounds, trying my best to ignore the stabbing pain in my head. I needed a place to relax myself and take time to think about what I was getting into with the prophecy.

When I reached the forest, I slowed my pace and walked over to one of the trees and sat down against the trunk, bringing my knees up close to my body. A bright light twinkled through the leaves of the trees in front of me, which if I looked closely at for too long, blinded me for a second. I made sure not to look directly at it as I thought about where the light could be coming from. It wasn't a star - they weren't that bright, nor that big. The faint sound of music echoed through the forest and I swiftly turned my head side to side to see where it was coming from. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the light.

I slowly pushed myself up from the ground and I began to make my way over to the light. Apart from the faint music growing louder as I neared the light, the forest was rather quiet. No animals were out, no humans were out and no vampaneze were out. The air was nice and cold which was a pleasure for me to inhale. After I made my way through several trees, I could see quite clearly where the light and music was coming from.

The Cirque Du Freak.

I remained beside the tree nearest the camp, watching in on the activity that was going on there. Some part of me wanted to join in with all of the freaks, but I knew I shouldn't be involved with them considering there were two vampires in there! Though, I did have that plan I had told Gannen and Steve which I could start working on. I didn't think it would be too hard considering Darren had already been rather kind to me the previous day. It was just the other vampire I would have to warm to, to be able to gain their trust.

I ran my hands through my hair and let a soft yawn escape from my mouth. My eyes closed for a moment, but I quickly opened them remembering that I was out in public. When I opened my eyes, I almost jumped out of my skin. Darren was suddenly standing in front of me, a grin on his face.

"It's good to see you again," his voice was a whisper as he spoke, and I didn't know why, but I whispered back.

"Is it?" I raised a brow at him, but a smile was on my face, "Are you going to stab me or feed me this time? Or how about we try something different?"

"I could feed you again if you would like, we're actually roasting marshmallows over a campfire. You could join us if you want? Everyone is friendly, but you may want to avoid Crepsley." He nodded once and offered out his arm for me to take. I looked down at his arm for a moment before I shrugged and linked my arm with his.

"Why not? I guess it will be fun. I haven't done something like that for years." I smiled weakly at him before he lead me into the camp grounds.

Actually being in the grounds was a lot different to viewing the camp from outside. The lights were brighter, but not blinding. The atmosphere was awake, but relaxing. The people were always smiling. It was absolutely beautiful.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Hai. So chapter nine is up. Woo! x] This chapter didn't go the way I originally planned it, but I'm proud of it. Please review, it really helps me out.

**Disclaimer:** I do **not **own any of the Darren Shan Saga.

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><p>We were sat down by the campfire, sticks with marshmallows on the tips in our hands. I had been welcomed with a positive attitude when Darren introduced me to the members of the Cirque - he didn't say anything about the fact that I was a vampaneze! For once in a long time, I was truly enjoying what I was doing. The caramelised coating on the marshmallows when I pulled them away from the campfire really settled my taste buds. I hadn't had a craving for sugar, but it felt quite nice to taste something I hadn't in a long time.<p>

Some of the things that the freaks could perform were unbelievable. I'd never seen things like it. The woman who had snapped off her own finger the previous day - her name was Corma Limbs - stood up and repeated what I had spied on. Yet again, she didn't even wince. I gave her a round of applause when she grew her finger back, which still amazed me even though I had already seen it before. She allowed me to ask questions about her skill, but I didn't have any. I would have loved to have known _how _she could do that, but I had a feeling that she didn't even know that.

Another one of the freaks, a snake-boy named Evra Von, showed me the connection which he had with his snake. He also showed me that he could play the guitar and I was quite impressed by that. When I was human, I had taken an interest into the electric guitar from listening to bands on the radio, but I had never actually learnt. For a joke, I asked if he could teach me how to play, little did I know that he would actually sit beside me and start showing me chords! But I still paid attention to what he was showing me.

All of the acts had fascinated me so much that I had forgotten about Darren who was sitting right beside me. I only remembered about him when he leaned in close to me and whispered something which I couldn't register properly over all of the chatter around us. Though, there was something alarming in his voice to whatever he said which made me jump up from where I was sitting. When I asked him to repeat what he said, he shook his head and took my hand, leading me away from the campfire. I frowned at him as he dragged me away.

"What are you doing?" I allowed him to continue dragging me away, but I asked why.

"Just keep quiet and let me do the talking," he said to me sternly. Something about the tone of his voice made me not want to question him and just do as I was told - a rare occurrence. He dragged me over to the corner of the camp grounds, where a tall, dark figure was standing with his arms folded. Before I could get a clear view of who it was, they came towards me. Darren stepped out of the way, offering me no help whatsoever. The dark figure turned out to be an old-looking man with ginger hair - a vampire from what I could smell. He grabbed me by the wrist and glared at me, lifting his other hand as if to attack me. But he didn't. Instead, he spoke to me.

"Why are you here? Who sent you?" There was only a small amount of harshness in his tone, but I could sense that he was more worried than angry. His questions had rather taken me by surprise, but I guess I _should _have seen it. Before I even had a chance to think about what I was going to say, Darren stepped in for me.

"I brought her here myself, Mr Crepsley, she won't hurt us." Darren nodded as he spoke confidently to the older vampire who turned out to be the Larten Crepsley that Steve had wanted to kill. I looked between the two of them before nodding quickly.

"I promise, I won't hurt anyone here," I said, truly meaning it and to add to that fact, I decided to give them my word. Larten nodded, accepting my word and he let go of my wrist. I rubbed my wrist as his grip had hurt a bit and I took a small step back so that I could breathe.

"Well then, you may go back to what you were doing. But I'll be keeping an eye on you!" he warned. Darren chuckled and shook his head, taking my hand again, leading me back to the campfire.

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><p>Darren and I stumbled out of the Cirque, laughing so much that our sides were beginning to hurt. He collapsed onto the grass a few feet from the entrance and I soon joined him, one of my arms wrapping around his shoulders. Any passer by who saw us would most definitely assume that we were drunk. After all, we were on the floor laughing with cat whiskers drawn on our faces!<p>

When we stopped laughing, there was a minute of awkward silence before it was interrupted by Darren pressing my shoulders onto the ground. His facial expression was rather serious - well, apart from the cat whiskers - as he looked down at me. I frowned at his actions and tried to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Darren, what are you doing?" I asked, struggling against his strong grip. What was his problem? We had been friends not two minutes ago! At first, I was expecting him just to burst out laughing again and roll off me, but as another minute ticked by, he didn't.

"You're going to go back and report to Steve, aren't you? Tell him everything that I've told you? That's why you came here, isn't it?" He shot me a glare, which made me swallow. How did he know? Or was he just guessing? Was this just a joke he was playing? I didn't know and I wasn't going to give away the plans, as I found him quite a good friend and I knew he would hate me if I said yes.

"What? Is that what you think? Why would I-? I wouldn't do that! Yeah, Steve's a vampaneze along with me, but he's annoying. He gets on my nerves, why would I do that? I'm not _that _evil, y'know." I tried to sound like I didn't have a plan made with Steve or anything along those lines, and it seemed to have worked.

Darren sighed and rolled off me, allowing me to sit up. He apologised to me, but I shook my head and told him that it really didn't matter. I rubbed my arms to keep the heat into my body and I stood up from the ground, running my fingers through my hair. Darren looked up at me, a sort of cheeky grin on his expression.

"What?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Your cat whiskers are hilarious," he chuckled, lying down on the ground, using his elbow to prop himself up.

Chuckling, I shook my head and slid my hands into the pockets of my skinny jeans, "You have the same cat whiskers on," I pointed out.

"That is true, but you look adorable with them."

I blushed a little and looked away from him for a moment so that he wouldn't notice. As I looked out through the forest, it was obvious that the sun was beginning to rise, indicating that I should have been heading back to headquarters. Darren also noticed the sunrise and quickly jumped up from the ground, brushing himself down. We shared an awkward glance in the silence, a small, yet again awkward, laugh escaped from my throat.

"Well, I should be heading back. I don't want Steve on my case," I grinned, slipping my hands into the pockets of my skinny jeans, "I'll see you some other day." I said finally as I turned around to leave. However, before I could take five steps away from him, Darren placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him. There was a delicate smile on his face, so I mirrored it, pulling my hands from my pockets.

"You're not going anywhere without a goodbye hug."

Shaking my head with a grin on my face, I opened my arms and wrapped them around him as he done the same, holding me closely to him. I closed my eyes for a moment and inhaled his aroma; for a vampire, he didn't smell too bad. I suppose it was just his natural scent. I pulled away slowly, a smile lingering on my face as we said goodbye and parted. I wanted to return back to headquarters before the sun raised into the sky fully, so I started off running, then broke into a flit.

Once I arrived back at the entrance, I hurried back into the tunnels, the smile not wiping from my face. A part of me wanted to run up to Steve and tell him everything that I done with Darren, to show him that I was happier spending time with the vampire and not him. Though I was sensible enough to know that it wouldn't be a good idea to do that.

I hurried to my room to catch up with the sleep which I desperately needed, yawning as I opened the door and closed it behind me. I walked over to the drawers to pull out some pyjamas that I could change into. Only after I pulled off my shirt, did I notice a dark figure in the corner of my room. Stepping back, I wrapped my shirt around my bare torso, covering what the person could see.

"You have a nice body, y'know, you shouldn't hide it." The figure said, followed by a chuckle. I scowled as I recognised the voice and threw the shirt onto the bed, pulling on my pyjama top before walking over to him.

"Steve, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" I asked, really annoyed by his actions. Looking up at me, there was a dark smirk on his face as he pushed himself from the wall which he was leaning on.

"Now, now, Elle, no need for that kind of language." Something about the way he spoke and the way he moved gave me the chills, as if something bad was going to happen. Sometimes, the way he would tease me like this, would remind me of myself. But the sly look on his face showed me that he wasn't in my room for just a chat. I glanced down at his body to see if he was hiding anything, and I soon saw it - a knife. I swallowed, alarmed, but stood my ground.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked, directing my question to the knife in his hand. Before he answered me, he toyed with the blade in his fingers, stepping closer to me.

"Well, you see. I know someone who has been a very bad girl," Steve said with a smirk, "And she needs punishing."

This alarmed me even more. Bells were ringing in my mind, telling me to run for it and not look back. I didn't want to let Steve know I was afraid, so I remained where I was.

"And what exactly are you going to do to punish me?" I asked, knowing that the girl he was talking about was me. He stepped closer to me, our bodies almost touching. I could feel his breath down upon me as he smirked, raising his hand. He brushed the tip of the knife against my cheek, his other hand brushing through my hair.

"I could do many things, but I know there's only one way to get a point through to you." His words made me want to punch him in the face and even stab him continuously with the knife in his hand. Gannen must have told him that as he was one out of two people who were the only ones who knew. From what I had been through when I was younger, this was one of the things I didn't want to happen ever again. I closed my eyes for a moment to hold back the tears I could feel forming and I bit onto my lower lip to stop a scream from emitting from my throat.

Steve grabbed my wrists and pushed me against the wall, chuckling darkly. I opened my eyes to see the blade still rest against my cheek. I closed my eyes tightly again, not wanting to see what was going to happen.

_He raises my wrist and presses the tip of the blade against the clear vain that shows through my skin. I begin to tremble and tears fall down from my eyes as I prepare myself for pain. He drags the knife across and it cuts into my skin. The pain causes me to scream as I'm flooded with memories._

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><p><strong>AN: **Please review! I'll try get the next chapter up ASAP.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Chapter ten! woop! aha, anyway, please enjoy :) And leave me some reviews? They really help me out :3

**Disclaimer: **I do **not **own any of the Darren Shan Saga whatsoever.

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><p>It wasn't the vampaneze who had made me feel like this, no, but bullies. I was bullied every single day at school when I was a human, making me feel like nothing. No one stood up for me either, not even my best friend. I always wondered why I classed her as my best friend, because she really wasn't up to that much - she was hardly ever there for me when I needed a friend.<p>

So when I joined the vampaneze clan, Trevor noticed this. Being the sweet guy he was, he allowed me to groan and complain about the bullies at my school, and curse to them as much as I wanted. He never seemed to be bothered by any of my complaining, not even when I complained about him some of the time. He learned that the scars on my wrists were going to haunt me for as long as they were there. He told Gannen about it, and yes, my mentor did take it seriously, but those who had found out didn't.

After quite some time, the scars had began to fade, which I was very pleased about. Then something I really didn't expect, happened.

When I was in my room preparing to go to bed, there was a knock on my door. Naturally, I opened it, only expecting it to be Gannen or Trevor, but no; two other vampaneze were standing at my door. They didn't have a good reputation around the clan - they were known for being idiots and others were betting that they would leave the clan and become "mad" vampaneze in a few years. Their names were Klaus and Adron. They both had a devious smirk on their faces, so I didn't allow them into my room. When I tried to ask them what they wanted, they only pushed their way into my room, closing the door behind them.

They pinned me to the floor, and I laid there frozen, thinking they were going to do something else. I was wrong. They both drew knives from their pockets and closed in on me. I tried to scream and wriggle free, but Klaus straddled me before I could escape, placing one hand on my mouth to shut me up. I tried to bite him, but his skin was tough and it didn't bother him. He was the first to hurt me, to bring back the horror of the pain I put myself through when I was human. The physical pain I used to take away the emotional pain I was feeling. They cut my wrists, replacing the scars that had faded off my skin.

Then they left me after that, but luckily enough, Gannen had came in to speak to me not ten minutes after that. He was a very respected vampaneze, so when he found out and demanded banishment on Klaus and Adron, his wishes were granted. Though, it didn't take long before I got my revenge on the two. I tracked them down out in the wild and slaughtered them during their sleep. No one cared that they were dead, in fact, no one found. Up until Steve, I was the only one who knew. Somehow, Steve had found out. How he knew, I needed to find out.

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><p>Steve pulled the knife away from my wrist, a dark chuckle coming from the depths of his throat. With a tear rolling down my cheek, I slowly opened my eyes to see the Lord smirking down at me. I swallowed and frowned up at him, meeting the purple eyes of a monster. I often wondered if I was a monster - I kill to survive, I've killed for my own inner peace. Was I a monster like the boy standing in front of me?<p>

With a smirk on his face, he leaned down so that he was eye level with me, but he kept my hands pinned against the wall. He pressed his lips firmly to mine and demanded a kiss from me, which I didn't respond to. When he didn't get a reply, he bit at my lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. I winced slightly and tried to move my head away from him, but he removed one of his hands from keeping my arms up and grabbed my chin, twisting my head so that I was facing him.

"You will look at me, Jones." Steve growled and pulled both of his hands away to punch me in the stomach. I keeled over at the harsh contacted and let out a muffled scream as he once again pressed his lips to mine. My wrists were to sore to allow me to try and attack him back, so I lifted my knee quickly to hit him in his manly pride. He growled and stepped back, looking up at me with his evil, purple eyes. Then I ran at him, knocking him to the ground with my shoulder. I stumbled and almost fell to the ground with him, but I managed to keep myself on my feet.

Seeing my chance to escape, I made my way to the door and pulled it open, causing pain to flood through my tender wrists. A groan escaped my lips, followed by a tear from the corner of my eye. I allowed the tear to roll down my cheek because I didn't have time to wipe it away - I needed to get out as soon as I could. Where I was going to go didn't matter, just as long as I was out of the reach of Steve.

To avoid any stares and questions from the vampaneze around the headquarters, I pushed myself to flit away and rush outside with all of my speed. Blood continued to drip from my wrists, so the drops would have given away a trail, leading anyone who was to follow it to me. To prevent this, I pressed my wrists against the fabric of my shirt - my pyjama shirt. It hurt my wrists at the start, but eventually I got used to the pain. I didn't even think of a place to run to, I just let my feet carry me to anywhere.

Eventually, after a while of running, I stopped and collapsed down onto my knees. I had lost a bit of blood from what had happened, and it had been a while since I had fed - I was weak. My eyes fluttered closed and I soon found myself lying on the ground, the blood seeping into the small blades of grass. The emerald green soon changed into fierce red, which soon came into contact with my hair and other parts of my skin.

I didn't know how long I was lying there for, but it felt like forever. My breathing had slowed down as sleep began to take over, and I knew it would be best to try and collect some sleep (I didn't want to be even weaker) but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to drift off. Instead, I remained between consciousness and sleep. The sounds of the quiet forest zoned out as echoes of my screams filled my ears, reminding me of each dreaded moment the blade of the knife touched my skin. I began shaking at the memories and fears as I continued to lay on the cold, bloody grass.

Crunching and the snapping of twigs didn't alarm me enough to get me moving, so I remained lying where I was, prepared for whatever was heading my way to destroy me if that were it's purpose. If it was human, I would have used my remaining energy to jump out and drain it of its blood. But when I heard my name spoke in a familiar voice, I knew that I shouldn't be alarmed.

Warm arms wrapped themselves around my body and scooped me up from the ground, cradling me close to the body. I didn't bother to move, but I gave a small huff to allow the person to know that I was alive. They gave a small sigh of relief and started to carry me away from the area. In the comfort of these warm arms, I drifted off into a light sleep, relaxing into the person carrying me.

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><p>With a small groan, I sat up from where I was lying, my eyes opening slowly, sleep trying to keep them closed. Slowly and carefully, I moved my hand and brushed it away with the back of my hand. My arm flopped back onto the bed which I was on, a sudden rush of pain reminding me of the previous night's events.<p>

I looked around the room with narrow eyes, trying to figure out where I was; it seemed like I was in a tent. The sunlight was shining through a crack in the flaps, telling me that it was day. Looking around the place, I saw another bed beside the one I was lying in and there was someone sleeping in it. I decided not to go and wake the person, but as I felt something slither up my leg, a loud gasp that came from my mouth woke up the sleeping boy.

His first words were all jumbled as he had just awoken, but when he saw me sitting on the bed, he raised a brow. He was starting to ask me some questions, but I didn't listen to what he was saying - I was too busy concentrating on the snake that was crawling up my leg. When he saw what was going on, he jumped up out of his bed and took the snake into his arms, whispering something to it, but I didn't catch what he was saying; I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy wondering how on earth I was in the same tent as Evra Von. Was he the person who had picked me up the previous night? I guessed not, as he wouldn't have been surprised when he found me in his tent.

Before I got a chance to even ask any questions, Darren walked through the flaps of the tent with a smile on his face. A smile threatened to creep onto my lips as I stood up from the bed, but a sudden shoot of pain from my wrists blocked it. I closed my eyes just for a moment and gave a soft whimper, but nothing else. That was all Darren needed to see that I wasn't alright, as he came to my aid straight away.

"Are you alright?" He asked with a concerned tone, gently taking my arm into his hand. I wanted to give him a nod and say that everything was fine, but of course it wasn't. I knew that I didn't have to lie to Darren, he was a nice boy and would probably find a way to clean up the scars, but something told me that it would be a bad idea telling him what happened. After all, he was Steve's ex-best friend and now that they were on different sides, that wouldn't help. They hated each other, from what I'd heard when they last collided.

Though I couldn't lie to him and pretend that nothing happened, he could clearly the see the scars and my wrist, and there was a frown on his face which told me he knew something was wrong. I didn't say anything, I only looked up at him, meeting his eyes as I done so. We shared a glance, as if I was silently telling him what had happened. In all of the silence, there was a quiet whistle which came from the snake-boy, soon followed by the footsteps of him leaving. Though Darren and I never looked away from each other. Even though he didn't know what had exactly happened, he had worked out that it was Steve's doing.

"You can't go back there," he sighed, lightly dropping my arm back to my side, "He could hurt you again. I know Steve, and he won't stop until he's fully satisfied."

"I need to, though, my mentor will go insane if I don't return for my duties." I sighed, sitting back down on the bed, Darren soon joining me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. I didn't pull away and rested my head on his shoulder, inhaling deeply.

"Does he know that this has happened?" His voice was quiet as he spoke to me, and quite relaxing as well. I only shook my head as an answer. "Then you should tell him." He said in reply.

"I don't see what good that will do. Steve's at a higher power than he is." I sighed and swallowed back tears that I felt forming. My head was slowly lifted from Darren's shoulder by his hand that cupped my chin, my purple eyes meeting his brown ones.

"Then stay with me."

Before I could even argue against it, he leaned in closely and softly pressed his lips against mine.

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><p><strong>AN: **Thank you for reading! Please review, they really do help me out ^o^


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **Wow... Um, I guess I've kind of neglected this story... I'm so sorry, forgive me pls.

**Elle: **Nope.  
><strong>Darren: <strong>I say we give her another chance.  
><strong>Elle: <strong>No, my creator left me for several months. [cries]  
><strong>Steve: <strong>Just get on with it, gawwwwd. [ulta-ooc pose]

Right... Yeah, so here it is. Chapter 11! Sorry for the long wait. Please read and review it helps me muchly.

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><p>I couldn't do it. I shouldn't have done it, but I did. I kissed him back. I didn't know whether it was genuine or whether I was just too angry at Steve that I had to it. Darren was a vampire, I was a vampaneze. In fact, some of my clan believed I was the Vampaneze Lady. But I couldn't be. And even if I was, who said I would stand up to match the prophecy. Sure, I'd felt a spark on the first few days of meeting Steve, but it wasn't a passionate spark, now that I think about it. Then that left the lingering question: what did it mean? It could have been the spark that was soon to start a burning fire.<p>

Darren's hand reached up to stroke my cheek gently as he pulled away from my lips. My eyes had been closed, so I opened them to look up at him. He smiled at me, and slowly let his hand fall onto his lap. The silence was starting to make him uncomfortable, and he showed that when he gave a small cough.

"I cleaned up the blood and your wrists stopped bleeding, but it could do with some bandages." He told me as he stood up from the bed, then motioned me to lay down. I done as he said, assuming that it would be a good idea. "I'll go get the first aid kit. Stay here."

"I won't move," I told him, and pushed a smile onto my lips to show him that everything would be okay. With that, he lifted up the flap to the tent and walked out. Would everything be okay? I wanted him to believe that, and I wanted to believe that. But whether we believed it or not, it was clear to see that it wouldn't be okay. Steve would he angry. He would try to find me. And when he did, he'd probably take down the majority of the Cirque if I were still here. I had to return back to the vampaneze. I had no choice in the matter. Risk my own safety or the safety of many. I wasn't that selfish.

I raised my hands slowly to my face to cover it for a moment. Pain did arise in my wrists, but I ignored it that time. I rubbed my face and as I pulled my hand away, I expected some black marks to be there from the cat whiskers which I hadn't had time to wash off; but there was nothing. How had my face suddenly became clean? It hadn't even been a few minutes when Darren returned with the first aid kit. I looked up at him as I sat up, frowning. "Did you find me without the pen on my face?" I asked him. If he said yes, I would have began to wonder if I had started losing some of my memory. But his reply told me not.

"No, I washed it off while you were asleep," he told me in a soft tone as he opened the first aid kid, "The powers of a baby wipe are amazing." He added with a sort of nervous laugh. This caused me smile. It was a sweet thing for him to do, so I thanked him for it.

We sat in silence as he wrapped the bandage around my wrists, handling each one with delicate care.

"He'll come and find me if I stay here, you know." I told him quietly after the silence was proving too much for me to handle.

"And I'll be ready for him when he does." Darren didn't look up from working the bandages.

"But you don't understand, he'll -"

"I know him, Elle, more than you do."

He was right. He did know Steve better than I did; he had been his best friend for years, what was I to compare to that? But I had been one of those people to train him. His skills had come on brilliantly.

"His a skilled fighter…" I told him quietly as he looked up at me. He looked directly into my eyes, my purple eyes. The ones that signified me as a monster.

"Then I'll take you somewhere else, anywhere, but not back there." He insisted, closing the first aid kit once he had finished with it. I stared at him, wanting to persuade him that I would be fine to go back, even though I knew I wouldn't. "Elle… please."

There was a kindness in Darren that I didn't quite understand. Some could see him as a push over, doing what others wanted him to do or doing whatever would make someone else happy. But I could see that he wasn't just doing this for me, he was doing it for himself. It was the tone of his voice when he spoke to me that told me that. It was probably for revenge on Steve. For his best friend becoming his enemy.

I sighed and looked around the tent, my tongue running over my lips in thought. "Where would you take me?" I asked him, turning my gaze back to face him.

"I know a place, abandoned. No one goes in there. You'll be safe there." He offered me a small smile and placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'll deal with Steve, get him off your trail."

He didn't have to do all of that for me, but he was, so I wrapped my arms around him and held him close.

"Thank you, so much." My voice was a whisper and my eyes fell closed. "I can't thank you enough for this."

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><p>Darren and I had left almost straight away. He hadn't given any word to his mentor, but he had told Evra. The vampire would probably yell at him when he were to return and I had told Darren that he didn't need to take me, he could just give me the address and I would get there myself. But he insisted on taking me. As we could flit, it didn't take us long to get there, but Darren had to stop a few times. He wasn't as strong as I was and I had a sneaking suspicion why. He was almost <em>too <em>human of his own good; he wasn't drinking blood.

We arrived at an old theatre. It was dusty and almost completely empty, there was only the stage and some ripped curtains. A few rows of chairs but not many. There were more on the upper ring. It was huge, and quite ghastly in my opinion.

"Believe it or not, this is where Steve and I first found Crepsley." He told me, walking down the isle at a slow pace to take in everything. "My hometown."

"Your hometown?" I raised my brows at him, "Isn't it a bit dangerous bringing me here?"

"How could it? I'm going back to the Cirque. No one will see me. To them I'm dead." His gaze dropped down to the ground for just a moment, but he tried to hide it by looking up at me with a smile. "Of course, I'll come and visit you to make sure you're safe. But I'll make sure to bring Crepsley with me so we'll come at night." He nodded, then walked over to the stage and jumped up onto it. I followed him up onto the stage and behind the curtains.

"Here would probably be a good place to sleep, away from view in case anyone comes in."

"I thought you said no one would come in!" I exclaimed.

"Just in case, you know." He laughed a little then began to look around for anything that I could use as a bed, but I would be fine on the floor so I told him that.

"Yeah, but you may as well make yourself comfortable."

I sighed quietly and stepped in front of him, placing my hands on his shoulders. "Darren, I'll be fine. You don't need to worry. I'm used to sleeping on the floor, I do it a lot." I told him with a small smile. "I'll be fine."

It took a lot of convincing to get Darren to go back to the camp, but eventually he left me on my own. I didn't mind, I had been on my own in strange places plenty of times before. But in the abandoned theatre, I felt empty. As if everything I had once lived for had been taken away from me. I had no idea what time it was outside, as there was no light coming through into the theatre - thankfully my vision was brilliant - but I decided to try and get some sleep anyway. Seeing as I couldn't find any sort of material to use as a blanket or pillow, I laid down on the cold, wooden floor and propped my head up slightly with my hand. For an hour or so, I only tossed and turned, unable to sleep, but somehow I managed to drift into sleep.

I didn't know how long I had been asleep and how much time had passed, but I was awoken suddenly by one of the doors bursting open and a familiar voice yelling through.

"Place her somewhere down here, boys. Make sure no one comes in. There's going to be a little get together and we wouldn't want anyone crashing it. Murlough, when the sun sets tonight, we're going somewhere. Tiny will be meeting us there."

_Steve. _


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **This chapter only took a day to write but I have been so excited to write this. I've had it planned out for ages and I really couldn't wait to get it up.

Please read and review, it really helps me out. :)

Oh and I didn't put a disclaimer in the last chapter but here's one now;

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of Darren Shan's work whatsoever, only my character, Elle.

Alsooooo. I realised that the day I posted chapter eleven (17-6-12) was the one year anniversary of this story! :D

Anyway, here we go.

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><p>Surprisingly, I remained quite calm even though I heard his voice. I supposed it was a sort of numb feeling, not allowing any fear to consume me. That was what I needed to hide. Fear. I needed to show Steve that I was not afraid of him. That I was not going to allow him to beat me. He wasn't going to push me down to nothing.<p>

I pushed myself up slowly, quietly, and glanced around the space I was in. The cuts on my arm had started to heal already, and there wasn't much pain anymore. Over in the corner, at the back of the area, was a huge stack of wooden crates. I could probably hide behind them and hope that none of the vampaneze would find me. I took slow and quiet steps over to the crates, praying that the wooden floorboards would not creak and give away my whereabouts. To my luck, they didn't. I was able to make it over to the pile of crates without making a sound. But nonetheless, my heart had began to race, though I still tried to hide my hear. Not that I had anyone to hide it from… Yet.

When I reached the crates, they were already set out like a sort of den. Something children would do. I pulled myself up onto one of the crates, then slipped off to hide in among them. They were set out in a certain way. The tallest point of the 'den' had four crates piled up onto each other, then the next points decreased to three crates, then two, then one. I had climbed over one of the single crates.

I seemed to relax quite quickly hidden behind the crates, despite the huge risk that one of the vampaneze in the theatre may catch my scent. Hopefully they wouldn't. Hopefully I would be able to get out and find myself somewhere else to stay. But now, I needed to stay and see what Steve meant by _"a little get together"_. Knowing Steve, it wouldn't be a good thing. So I remained silent, kept my breathing very quiet and listened to their conversations.

"And are you sure the vampire will come?" That was Murlough's voice.

"Of course he will, that arsehole would do anything to protect his precious little family. And the monkey girl." Steve scoffed.

My breath almost caught in my throat and I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from making any form of noise. They were out to get Darren. They had kidnapped Rebecca and they were planning to take Darren's family. I couldn't let that happen! I had to stop it somehow! Only I didn't know how I could.

"…And when I finally have him where I want him, I'll kill him. Then the vampaneze will -" Steve had laughed darkly until he stopped. I froze. It was all silent until I heard footsteps climb up onto the stage. My eyes closed. The footsteps approached the curtains and I heard them being pulled back. A dark chuckle came from behind me, but across the other side of the room. I remained still and quiet.

"Oh, Elle. I thought you had left me. It seems that you just can't keep yourself away from me, can you?" He chuckled and began walking forward, towards me. "Where did you go last night, huh? I was only having a bit of fun. You just have no sense of humour! Well, I'll tell you what. If you come out now, I'll tell you something _really _funny."

I didn't move, hoping that if I remained as still and as quiet as possible, he would think I wasn't here, but he had my scent so it wasn't likely. His footsteps stopped when he was close to the crates and I could almost her his breath. I opened my eyes slowly and looked up as he jumped over one of the crates to join me in the small den.

"My, my, did you make this? Very childish, _very childish._" He smirked and knelt down in front of me. "Why don't you come out? I have something important to tell you anyway."

I just stared up at him and I could feel my jaw clenching as if it had a mind of its own. I couldn't control my body. If I was in control, I wouldn't have stood up, but I did. Though I made sure to hide the fear from my expression.

"That's a good girl," Steve chuckled, standing up straight. I glared at him and suddenly spoke.

"_Shut up._" I snapped at him, then began to climb over one of the crates, but he grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back. One of his arms snaked themselves around my stomach while his other hand grabbed my chin, forcing my head back onto his shoulder. His grip was tight and I couldn't break out of it.

"_No. _You're the one who needs to shut up and listen. We have the monkey girl and we're going to get Darren's family. You're going to stay here and watch as I put him through misery and there's nothing you can do about it." There was pure evil in his tone, and I could tell that he was enjoying every word of it. "Eventually, when he's a wreck, I'll kill him. And yet again there will be nothing you can do about it. _I will kill Darren Shan. _He deserves it." He chuckled manically, running a finger down my cheek. His nail scratched at my skin, but I didn't flinch. I was not going to show my fear towards him. He would certainly use it against me.

"And you're going to watch me kill him slowly and painfully. You're going to see your precious little vampire boyfriend torn and ripped apart." He whispered into my ear and I almost screamed at him, but I held myself together.

"He's not my boyfriend…" I told him, once again trying to break free of Steve's grip, but I failed.

"Oh? I guess you won't mind me killing him then." He chuckled darkly, tightening his hold around me.

"No!" I yelled, building the strength to push the both of us back onto the ground. It caught Steve as a surprise, just the way I had wanted it to, and his hold loosened. I rolled out from his arms and jumped up from the ground. "Don't you dare!" I stared down at him and watched him carefully as he pushed himself up from the ground, his eyes seemingly lost all life. He was evil. Pure evil.

I couldn't hold the fear in anymore, it was just impossible with the way he spoke, what he said and the way he looked at me. He began to walk towards me, so I took steps back but I bumped into one of the crates which stopped me from walking back anymore. He grabbed me by the arms and pushed me back onto the crate, glaring down at me.

"Are you afraid of me, Elle?" His voice was quiet, but that didn't mean it lost any of its sharpness. When he received no answer from me, he pushed me down further and growled. "_Are you?_"

"N-no… No! I'm not." I lied, though the cry in my tone gave it away. Steve smirked and pulled me up and brushed some hair from my face.

"Get yourself out there, go and sit with the other vampaneze like a good little girl."

Just what I didn't want to happen happened. Steve had amounted me to nothing. He had made me appear weak and fearful.

* * *

><p>I could hear Darren's voice as he spoke to Murlough, demanding to see his family and the monkey girl. As much as I wanted to run out there and tell him to leave and that it wasn't safe, I couldn't. Steve had a tight hold of me while he was sitting backstage with me. He was chuckling quietly, waiting for his plan to take action. He was going to make me watch Darren's death and I would certainly not be able to take that. He would end up breaking me down again.<p>

When it was Steve turn to go out onto the stage, he warned me to stay where I was. If I didn't, he would kill me. I had no plans on dying anytime soon, so I remained where I was. For now. If only Gannen could have been there, he would have made sure that I was far away from Steve.

I listened carefully to what was going on. Steve was ranting and Darren was trying to make him see sense. If only that boy would listen! My fingers fumbled against each other as I sat nervously, my heart pounding against my chest as I waited for the worst to happen. There was no way I was going to let Darren die, I had to stop Steve from killing him! But now wasn't the right time to go out and stop it all from happening.

"Just kill her… Oh, and you have to drink her blood too." Steve was talking about Rebecca. The choice for Darren was either kill his family or kill Rebecca. The other was allowed to live. I swallowed and stood up from the crate I was sitting on, pacing over to one of the curtains. I wasn't stupid enough to poke my head out to see what was going on, but I remained close to the curtain, almost gripping onto the fabric to calm myself. They began to fight, I could hear it. I was still under the belief that Darren hadn't been drinking blood, and if he hadn't drank any since I last saw him, he was screwed. Steve was strong as he drank blood regularly. And then something I should have expected but didn't happened. Larten Crepsley had entered.

I took a glance at what was happening, noticing that Murlough had left the stage to face the older vampire. Darren was lying down, weak. Steve had left him to sort out the huge spider that was on his head. I recognised the spider; Madame Octa. Larten and Murlough were throwing a knife towards each other, easily catching it. Darren had been picked up by Rebecca who had escaped from the ropes she was held by. I felt a pang of jealousy wave through my body, but I ignored it and concentrated on what was happening. What could I do to stop Steve from trying to kill Darren?

Soon enough Larten had both Murlough and Steve on top of him, stabbing him several times with knives. My hand raised to cover my mouth as I watched what was going on. When the vampire was thrown down onto the ground and Steve raised a knife to send it plummeting through Larten's heart, Darren reappeared. Where had he been? I watched as he ran at Steve, taking him down to the ground. It all seemed to happen very quickly because the next thing I knew was Larten had picked up the knife Steve dropped and stabbed Murlough in the heart!

I did feel bad for seeing a fellow vampaneze die right there while I couldn't do anything about it, but I hadn't liked Murlough that much anyway. His death still shook me a little.

"My people aren't weak like yours. They will avenge me, Crepsley." He chuckled quietly and fell back onto his knees. "The truce, one hundred years, is over. The war begins." Those were the last words of Murlough. He dropped down onto his back, dead.

Then Mr Tiny walked in. He seemed to be… Happy with the outcome.

"It's just like you said, we started the war." Steve stated, looking between Mr Tiny and Darren.

"It won't start a war, if no one hears about it." Darren pointed out, and then the two of them were fighting. They both ran at each other and began to flit around, attempting to hurt each other. Now was my opportunity to get into it. Swallowing, I stepped out from behind the curtains and jumped off the stage. Larten, that's who I was going to. I hurried over to him and knelt down, starting to look at the wounds he had received.

"What are you doing?" He snapped, trying to push me away. I pushed back against his hand and stared directly up at him.

"I'm going to help you, you're wounded." I pointed out the obvious, but I needed to get my point across; he needed to know I wasn't on Steve's side for this.

He only shook his head and pulled the knife out of his thigh himself. I scowled under my breath and looked around the theatre. The two boys had disappeared, but Mr Tiny was smirking to himself. No good could come from Mr Tiny. As I stood up, Darren and Steve flitted back into the room but before they could continue to fight for any longer, Desmond stopped them.

"That's enough, boys."

They both stopped and looked at each other, giving each other looks of disgust. Then Steve stared at Mr Tiny, then looked at me. A smirk grew onto his face. Before I could even begin to wonder what he was thinking, he flitted at me and dropped his hand down to pick something up from the ground.

I felt his arm wrap around my back and I was confused at first, but one second later, a sharp stinging sensation came from my stomach. It just stung at first, but then I felt the real pain. It was almost too much to scream at. I fell limp in Steve's arms and looked down to see his hand wrapped around a dagger that was dug deep into me. I looked back up at him, my lower lip quivering and my ears filling with tears that came because of the pain.

"Why?" I whispered to him, my voice probably inaudible to everyone else.

"One of us had to die, Elle, and it wasn't going to be me." He replied, kneeling down to drag me down onto the ground so I was laying down. He looked down at me, tilting his head slightly. "The vampaneze didn't uncover the rest of the destiny to tell you, but one of us - Lord or Lady - must be sacrificed. I wasn't going to die, so it had to be you."

I looked up at him, meeting his eyes. His evil eyes. There was triumph in them, and I could see he was proud of what he had done. I dropped my gaze and looked down at the knife in my stomach, realisation properly hitting me. I was dying. Within a few minutes I would be dead and there would be no coming back. Not as me, anyway. Mr Tiny would bring me back as one of his 'little people'. I didn't want that. No. My body began to shake and I could feel blood oozing out of me. I had felt things like that before, but I had managed to stop the bleeding before. I couldn't now.

Steve stood up and walked away from me, joining Mr Tiny's side. I closed my eyes and swallowed as blood was trying to crawl its way up my throat. I heard some footsteps approach me quickly and a hand slipped into mine. My eyes opened and I met the dark brown ones of Darren. I could only form a small smile, but I made the effort for him.

"Elle, listen to me, you're going to be alright... You're not going to die." He tried to reassure me, but his words were lies. I was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. He only wanted me to be happy.

"I'm clocking out, Darren..." My voice was quiet. I was losing energy fast and I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

"No... No you're not." His breath caught in his throat and I thought I saw him tear up. I managed to lightly squeeze his hand in hope that it would stop him from crying.

"Darren, I want you to do me a favour..." It was hard to speak and I had to continuously swallow to keep blood from my mouth. "When I... Go, I need you... To take my body. Don't let Mr... Tiny change it." My eyes were closing, but I forced them half open. I could see by the look on his face that he didn't understand what I meant by 'change it', but he nodded anyway.

"I promise." He smiled a little at me then leaned down his head and pressed a kiss to my forehead, then moved his lips to kiss mine softly. I couldn't gather enough energy and strength to kiss him back, but my lips pursed just slightly.

Then everything turned fuzzy. My eyes didn't close, but all I could see what a bright, white light. I had always heard people say that your life would flash before your eyes right before you die. It's true. I could see everything that I had been through.

Fragments of my childhood. Being forced into becoming a vampaneze. Trevor comforting me. Trevor treating me like a princess. Klaus and Adron hurting me. Being informed of Trevor's death. Slaughtering Klaus and Adron. Watching Murlough blood Steve. Training Steve. Feeding with Steve. Meeting Darren on the wrong foot. Getting to know Darren a bit more. The doughnuts. The cat whiskers. Steve hurting me just like Klaus and Adron did. Darren 'nursing me back to health'. Running away from the vampaneze. Hearing Steve's twisted plans to kill Darren. Watching Murlough die. Feeling the cold metal of the dagger penetrate my skin. Darren's lips against mine for the last time.

I heard Darren's voice for the last time, whispering my name. Steve's manic-like chuckling in the background. And then everything stopped. I was dead.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, subscribed, favourited this story. You guys have really gave me the motivation to keep writing this fanfiction, but I guess it's the end of 'The Vampaneze Lady'.

I _may_ be starting a new Darren Shan fanfiction, one I'm purely writing for fun, but I will be continuing Blood and Snakes when I get round to it.

If anyone here is a fan of The Hunger Games, you should go ahead and read my fanfiction, 'The Relapse'. It's based after the third book so I suggest only reading it if you've read all three. Wouldn't want to spoil it for you ;)

Next note: What would you guys think if I wrote a prelude to this? I was thinking about writing about Elle's life when she had just become a vampaneze, etc. Please leave a review telling me what you would think of that idea or PM me if you have any ideas for it!

But yes, thank you to all who have read this story. It means a lot! Love you.


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